Improving the longevity of your food
The way you wrap your food can be crucial when it comes to increasing its longevity and keeping its texture and flavor intact, the less air it is exposed to the better. There are certain tricks you can use to improve the quality and the lifetime of the contents of your freezer.
First and foremost, when it comes to home-cooked meals, it is crucial that you allow the food to cool completely. Ideally, you should try to refrigerate this food before putting it into your freezer to ensure it’s quality remains. You have put in a lot of effort after all so it would be a shame to ruin your hard culinary work.
When it comes to supermarket purchases it is advisable to rewrap the food so you can ensure it is as tightly sealed as possible. If you are using a resealable bag then a good technique to remove as much air as possible is to almost seal the bag then use a straw to remove the excess air, although do not do this with raw meat, for obvious reasons.
When using freezer bags in general not only is it good to remove as much air as possible but in doing so you will take up less space and therefore be able to store much more food in your freezer. The same goes for using plastic tubs. Try and select a tub size that can be filled completely.
Labeling and dating your food is another way to ensure that there is no waste. This will also allow you to do what supermarkets and restaurants do, stock rotation, using the older food items first. Use the table on the previous page to write a use-by date on each item.
Get some labels to properly date your food here
